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Friday, August 26, 2016

(This is my weak attempt to overcome what I fear is permanent blog writer's block.)

1. We have been watching "The Night Of" on HBO and I am hooked. It's an 8-part mini-series about a murder in NYC, so basically it's super light-hearted and uplifting. Anyway, the last episode is on Sunday and I honestly don't know if I can wait another 48 hours to find out how it ends. In the meantime, I'm distracting myself with "Friends" re-runs and currently remembering how painful it was waiting for Rachel and Ross to get together.

2. Clara has had her first 2 dance lessons and she seems to really be enjoying it so far! I don't know why, but it legitimately surprises me to see her following the teacher's directions... wait, I do know why- it's because she acts more like a honey badger at home and is known to respond to our instructions with phrases like, "Stop talking," and "Don't say that to me. You know better."

Nonetheless, she has a great time and loves to watch herself in the mirror and laugh while she's doing whatever moves the teacher asks them to do. And even more so, she loves getting stickers at the end- the motivational powers of stickers never cease to amaze me!

3. Why is it that the act of sticking his hands in his pockets suddenly makes him look 2 years older to me?!

Good thing I have pictures like this from the same day to remind me that he is still very much a little boy :)

4. I posted a #tbt picture of my 2nd grade school picture on Instagram yesterday and a friend pointed out that I looked like Punky Brewster. I mean, I have to admit I can see it! Maybe she was mine and Allison's long lost triplet?

5. We made these pumpkin muffins with greek yogurt for the twins for breakfast this week and they were a big hit! This is exciting because (a) last time I sent them to school with homemade muffins, they matter-of-factly informed me that they threw them in the trash, and (b) BAKING ANYTHING WITH PUMPKIN IN IT MEANS IT'S BASICALLY FALL. It's true, if you bake something with pumpkin, it's as if the 95+ degree temperatures and mugginess don't even exist. You should try it.

Friday, August 19, 2016

*Using "weekend" as a verb makes me feel fancy... sort of like "we've been weekending in the Hamptons since I was a child." And this recap is exactly like that, except instead of spending a luxurious weekend in the Hamptons, we drove to Austin and crammed 8 people into a 2-bedroom apartment and hardly showered while we were there.

Anyway.

I never know how to answer people when they ask where I'm from. Of course, in the immediate sense, I'm from Sugar Land, or as I more commonly tell people that aren't from around here, "I live in the Houston area."

But if they ask where I grew up, it's really a two-part answer. I lived in Dallas until I was 13, and then moved to Austin, which I considered to be where I was "from"... until my parents then moved back to Dallas when I was 29. Now that my parents don't live in Austin anymore, it seems weird to say that I'm from there, but obviously it's not like those years I spent living there don't count.

All that to say, we haven't gotten back to Austin much in recent years, so a visit was long overdue. We joined the Olivers for a quick weekend getaway and squeezed in as much as we could with a short timeframe and 4 small children in tow.

Allison beat me to the punch with recapping (as usual), so feel free to go read that here.

We headed that way last Friday and made it in time for lunch at Blue Baker, complete with a delicious BLT and 4 very hyperactive children.

Thankfully our plans for the afternoon involved said hyperactive children releasing some energy at Hop N Happy. The twins loved it, and so did we because it wasn't very crowded, didn't cost too much, and did not involve spending any time in the disgusting 100+ degree weather. Hooray!

Blue-eyed brothers from genetically-the-same-mothers

After some visits (yes, multiple) to Trader Joe's (Why do we not have one in Sugar Land? I need more cookie butter products in my life.) and Target, we "rested" at the apartment and let the cousins enjoy doing cousin things, like alternating playing with fighting.

One amusing item to note: we had been talking to the twins about how we were going to Austin, and Colby apparently thought Austin was a person we were going to visit. All weekend, he referred to the apartment as "Austin's house," and kept asking where Austin was, and more importantly, where were all of his toys? Ha!

The dads went on solo duty for the evening while Allison and I caught up with a few high school friends at a really tasty restaurant that actually reminded me a lot of the places we ate in Charleston! Memories were relived - good and bad - and queso was consumed, aka: my ideal evening.

There's no one like '01, baby!

We spent Saturday visiting with some other friends and frolicking in the apartment complex pool. And by "frolicking," I mean that I avoided actually getting into the pool and supervised from dry land instead.

Hanging out with the Trapps Destroying the Trapps' house, one toy box at a time :)

Remember my friend, Kaimey, that I blogged about? The two cuties on the right are her twinkies, Harper & Hudson!

We finished off the evening with dinner at Hula Hut (my favorite!), which was admittedly infinitely more stressful with children in tow. There are so many distractions (giant fake fish! water! people!) and keeping the children alive kind of killed my buzz, but the pipeline enchilada was still delicious and the tortilla chips were still plentiful, so there was that.

We also followed this outing up with cookie butter ice cream from Trader Joe's (see question above), bedtime for the little ones, and more Olympics-watching for the big ones.

On Sunday morning, we headed out to the Thinkery, which I had heard a lot about and was excited to introduce the twins to. They were not exactly cooperative, but they sure had fun!

We stopped for lunch on our way out of town and then made our way home, much to the twins' dismay. As is always the case when we travel with the Olivers, we enjoyed our quick trip to "Austin's house," and hope to make it back again before another 2 years pass by!

Monday, August 8, 2016

We've been busy doing the same old, same old around these parts with some anniversary-celebrating thrown in the mix. As usual, it's easier to let my phone do the talking:

How cute (and resourceful) are these future astronauts? JK, twins, you're never allowed to travel to space because I've watched too many movies where that didn't end well.

We are failing miserably at the battle to keep the twins from getting out of their beds. At least I've gotten over the initial panic I felt when I would scan the room with the video monitor and not be able to see one of them- now I know to assume they're under the bed!

And speaking of bedtime, Colby is obsessed with their storybook Bible and there have been several nights when we've found him asleep like this, with the Bible open on his pillow next to him. It's almost as if he poses it that way so when we find it, we can't be upset about all of the bedtime shenanigans he pulled.

2 years later, we finally picked out a new chandelier that for the dining room- here's the before/after (and shout out to Brian for uninstalling the old one and installing the new one!)

Brian and I celebrated our 9th anniversary last week! We kicked off the day with an (early) breakfast outing with the twins, Brian brought me these pretty flowers at work, and then we finished off the evening with dinner at Perry's and dessert at The Middle Spoon. Resulting food coma not pictured. Thanks to Wade & Allison for babysitting!

We had a second anniversary celebration of sorts on Saturday night when we headed out to watch the Astros play (preceded by a delicious dinner at El Tiempo). Baseball is not really my thing, but I will not turn down the opportunity to go out on the town sans children (and thanks to the in-laws for wrangling said children that night)!

Colby kept putting this pot on his head at the Olivers' house and referring to himself as "Pot-ty Boy"... guess that's better than "Pot Head"?

It has come to our attention that very few people realize we own not one, but two dogs, so this picture is proof that Noah and Buster still exist. This is also proof that we regularly very occasionally take them on walks.

Oh, iPhone, what would I ever do without you documenting my family's entire life? And oh, readers, what would you ever do without me sharing all of said documentation with you?

Monday, August 1, 2016

Since Colby got the spotlight last week, it's only fair that Clara gets her turn this week. Let me start by saying that she has given us her fair share of sass in recent weeks, most notably when Brian asked her to do something and she yelled back, "GET OUT OF MY FACE!" Oh, hey there, future 14-year-old Clara, you are terrifying.

I also recently asked her if she wanted apple or peach slices with her lunch and she responded with, "I don't like apples today. I want a waffle." Always paving her own way, that one (and once again, not a clue where she got it).

And then there was the time she randomly announced from the back seat, "I don't want you to leave me at school anymore. I need you to stay with me. Sometimes I cry all day for you because I need you." Another heartwarming working mom moment for sure.

Emotional dumping and all, she is indeed a girly girl. And she's had two recent opportunities to really embrace that characteristic:

1. Going to her first all-girl birthday party

Her friend, Georgia Kate, had a baby doll themed party the weekend before last and as soon as I told her about it, she did not stop talking about getting to go! She also made sure that Colby was very clear about the fact that he would not be joining her... sisters are sweet.

She had unsurprisingly opted out of her nap that day, so she and her baby doll snuck in some Zs on the way to the party.

We actually brought two baby dolls because I had a feeling she was going to want the bigger one for some of the "activities," and I was right!

These two cute cousins were loving every bit of it

Decorating their "diaper bags"

Terrible attempt at a pic of Clara and Avery with the sweet birthday girl

2. Getting ready for "dance class"

A few of Clara's friends at school started taking dance lessons this past year and it wasn't long before Clara started asking me if she could go to "dance class," too. Once Fall registration opened, we got her signed up, and after many months of waiting, we are now just two weeks away from her first class!

Allison helped me pick out her clothes the other night and after school on Friday, she insisted on trying everything on.

I already posted this one on Instagram, but seriously, I was dying from the cuteness and the sweetness and also the sadness that she looks way too grown up here.

Not to worry, the sappiness didn't last long because she soon busted out her signature "cheese" face for the camera- framer!

I sent the top picture to my mom and sisters, to which one of them responded that it looked just like me when I was little. Allison then dug up this picture of us at a recital at around the same age:

Allison on the left; me on the right... alternatively known as COLBY on the left and CLARA on the right. See what I mean?:

Genetics are pretty crazy, right?

Anyway, I will be sure to update you all on how her first class goes (... and on whether or not the excitement carries her through the duration of the school year).